<![CDATA[Computational thinking (CT) is an essential 21st-century skill that supports individuals in understanding, representing, and solving complex problems systematically through abstraction, pattern recognition, decomposition, and algorithmic thinking. In chemistry education, CT is particularly relevant for supporting students’ abilities in analyzing data, modeling phenomena, and solving scientific problems. However, the initial profile of CT skills among preservice chemistry teachers remains underexplored. This study aimed to analyze the CT skills of preservice chemistry teachers using CT tasks adapted from The UK Bebras Challenge Elite category. A descriptive quantitative approach was employed involving 34 chemistry preservice teachers. The instrument consisted of 12 tasks categorized into easy, moderate, and difficult levels, representing CT components including abstraction, decomposition, algorithmic thinking, automation, and pattern recognition. Students’ scores were weighted according to task difficulty and converted into a 100-point scale for categorization. The results showed that 19 students (56%) were categorized as having low CT skills, 15 students (44%) demonstrated moderate CT skills, and none achieved the high category. These findings indicate that preservice chemistry teachers still face challenges in applying systematic problem-solving strategies. Therefore, chemistry teacher education programs should integrate CT-oriented learning through authentic problem-solving, research-based learning, computational chemistry, and modeling activities to support the development of future chemistry educators’ computational thinking skills.]]>
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